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Pop singer Psy made his quirky debut in South Korea's K-pop industry back in 2001 but it wasn't until July that he began shooting to global fame.

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His hit single
Gangnam Style is now the most-watched video of all time on
YouTube.

A rare sense of humour and irony distinguished the chubby
rapper, now 34, from his peers in the manufactured world of
K-pop and made him an unlikely worldwide success.

As of Sunday
Gangnam Style – whose wacky music and dance moves mock the
hedonistic lifestyle of the upmarket southern Seoul neighbourhood –
had registered almost 814 million views in four months.

The video has inspired thousands of online imitations of Psy's
famous horse-ride dance, and flash mobs of tens of thousands in
Paris, Rome and Milan.

The song peaked at number two on the US Billboard's pop chart
for seven weeks in a row after sweeping the charts in countries
including Australia and Britain.

World figures swept up in the fever include UN secretary general
Ban Ki-moon, British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President
Barack Obama, who either tried out the dance or marvelled at its
popularity.

Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, gained the ultimate
showbiz accolade by teaming up with Madonna in the pop diva's
concert and performing a special version of
Gangnam Style with MC Hammer in the American Music
Awards.

YouTube called the music video – which Saturday overtook Justin
Bieber's
Baby in number of views – "a massive hit at a global level
unlike anything we've ever seen before".

Billboard.com noted it racked up the YouTube milestone in about
four months compared to more than two years for
Baby, calling it "nothing short of a pop culture
phenomenon".

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Psy's dramatic rise has been viewed with a mixture of pride and
surprise in his home country, whose music industry has long been
dominated by prettified, highly-manufactured girl and boy
bands.

Having taken Asia by storm over the past decade with bubblegum
hooks and dance moves staged with military precision, K-pop in
recent years has garnered a small but growing fan base among
teenagers in parts of Europe and America.

But none has come close to the worldwide popularity of the
homely Psy.

"Psy is right at the opposite of our typical K-pop stars who are
extremely preened and whose every single move is strictly dictated
by their agent," prominent music critic Kang Hun told AFP.

Humour, especially satire, is rare in the mainstream Korean
music scene and that, coupled with Psy's embrace of his anti-pop
idol looks, has set him apart.

The singer, well known at home for his humorous and explosive
stage performances, has long been a somewhat provocative figure in
Korea.

He was once convicted in Seoul of smoking marijuana. Several of
his earlier songs and music videos were banned for those aged under
18 because of what state censors deemed to be overly sexual lyrics
or bad language.

In 2007 Psy was forced to serve a second period of compulsory
military service after it was revealed that he had continued with
his showbiz interests during his first two-year stint.

"Psy has long had very freewheeling, humorous and even
provocative elements in his songs which are utterly lacking in most
young K-pop idols," Kang said.

"I think
Gangnam Style is a pinnacle of such a humourous,
non-serious bad-boy style of his. And apparently people around the
world can relate to his self-deprecating sense of humour."

Psy himself says he invites laughter and not ridicule.

"My motto is to be funny, but not stupid," he once said in an
interview with Yonhap news agency.

It remains to be seen if
Gangnam Style will prove anything more than a one-hit
wonder. Psy is set to release a new album in English and Korean
early next year which will be distributed globally.

But even if it takes off, it will be hard to replicate the
success of
Gangnam Style, said Han Koo-Hyun, the head of the Korean
Wave Research Institute.

"His next song will be able to rack up at least hundreds of
millions of views due to the popularity of
Gangnam Style but will never be more popular than
Gangnam Style, said Han.